Twenty years of splenectomy for hereditary spherocytosis.

A retrospective study of all patients who underwent splenectomy during the 20-year period, 1960 to 1979, for hereditary spherocytosis at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, identified 58 patients, of whom 20 (33%) were 15 years of age or older. Accessory splenic tissue was located in ten (17%) of the patients. Although cholelithiasis was present in only 12 (21%) of the total cohort, when analyzed for patients 10 years of age or older the incidence was 41% (11/27). Because of the positive association between advancing age, cholelithiasis, and hereditary spherocytosis, it is recommended that any patient 10 years of age or older undergo an oral cholecystogram as part of the routine preoperative evaluation.